Printer and printing method

ABSTRACT

A program execution unit determines a kind of an error and an error recovery method referring to an error recovery content management table and an error recovery method setting table, which are previously stored in a memory, from a kind of an error detected in a print language analysis step of a RIP. Information that an error occurs is given to user via an information unit so that user selects and prints necessary page of a print job, which is not printed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/223,041, filed Sep. 12, 2005, the entire contents of which isincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to printer and printing method, which caninput data externally to print it.

2. Description of the Related Art

Conventionally, the following method has been disclosed in JPN. PAT.APPLN. KOKAI Publication No. 8-63309. According to the method, printingis interrupted in a printer if the frequency of error commands occurringin print language analysis and the number of blank sheets of paper reacha predetermined threshold. Then, the foregoing error is reported toterminals, and thereafter, printing is stopped or restarted whenreceiving the instructions suited to the error.

However, the error command described in the Publication No. 8-63309 isnot merely included in a language system of the print language used foranalysis. The foregoing method can not take suitable courses if thefollowing errors are made in the printer. One is an error of dataintegrity such as syntax error and illegal character. Another is anerror resulting from a shortage of printer resource (e.g., memory andmagnetic disk). Moreover, malfunction occurs in the error detectionbased on the threshold of the number of a blank sheet of papers if thefollowing case is given. Specifically, blank sheets of paperintentionally replenished by user and the number of backside pagesinserted automatically in double-side printing are much.

As a result, there is a problem that print output is wastefully made dueto the foregoing errors such as illegal character and malfunction.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of an aspect of the present invention is to provide printerand printing method, which can prevent wasteful print output when errorssuch as syntax error, illegal character and a shortage of systemresource occur.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided aprinter comprising:

an input unit inputting print data;

an analysis unit analyzing data inputted by the input unit; and

a controller executing control for changing a content of a print job inaccordance with a kind of an error detected by the analysis unit.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda printing method of a printer comprising:

inputting print data;

analyzing data inputted; and

changing a content of a print job in accordance with a kind of an errordetected by the analysis.

Additional objects and advantages of an aspect of the invention will beset forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obviousfrom the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.The objects and advantages of an aspect of the invention may be realizedand obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinationsparticularly pointed out hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of the specification, illustrate preferred embodiments of theinvention, and together with the general description given above and thedetailed description of the embodiments given below, serve to explainthe principles of an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of aprinter according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view to explain the printing operation of the printer;

FIG. 3 is a view showing a printout example when normal print isexpected;

FIG. 4 is a view showing a printout example when an error occurs;

FIG. 5 is a view showing a printout example when illegal characteroccurs;

FIG. 6 is a view to explain an error recovery management table;

FIG. 7 is a view to explain an error recovery method setting table;

FIG. 8 is a view showing a screen of a display unit displaying thestatus when a print job is changed;

FIG. 9 is a view showing a screen of a display unit displaying thehistory when a print job is changed;

FIG. 10 is a view showing a select display screen displayed inreprinting;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart to explain printing (preprocessing);

FIG. 12 is a flowchart to explain the procedure taken to errors;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart to explain printing (post-processing);

FIG. 14 is a flowchart to explain printing (post-processing);

FIG. 15 is a flowchart to explain printing (post-processing);

FIG. 16 is a flowchart to explain the error recovery procedure;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart to explain the error recovery procedure;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart to explain the error recovery procedure; and

FIG. 19 is a flowchart to explain the error recovery procedure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment of the present invention will be described below withreference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of aprinter 20 according to the present invention. The printer 20 iscomposed of program execution unit 1, data input/output unit 2,information unit 3, operation unit 4, image processor 5, timer 6, memory7, raster image processor (RIP) 8, display unit 9 and printout unit 10.

The program execution unit 1 reads and executes programs stored in thememory 7.

The data input/output unit 2 is an interface, which inputs data fromexternal devices such as personal computer, and outputs data.

The information unit 3 supplies an information message to user.

The operation unit 4 is used when user operates the printer 20.

The image processor 5 converts a print image generated by the RIP 8 intoan image suited to print, and makes correction to output the image morebeautiful.

The timer 6 is clock means.

The memory 7 is able to read and write program, supplied data andtemporarily stored data at a unit of block.

The RIP 8 interprets a supplied page description language (PDL) to forma print image.

The display unit 9 displays an operating situation and a state of theprinter 20.

The printout unit 10 prints a print image on paper.

FIG. 2 is a view to explain the printing operation of the printer 20.

For example, PLD data is generated from an application operating on apersonal computer (PC) 30 using a printer driver 31, and then, the PDLdata is supplied to the printer 20 via LAN.

In the printer 20, the PDL data supplied via the data input/output init2 is temporarily stored in the memory 7, and further, read into the RIP8. In the RIP 8, the read PDL data is interpreted in a print languageanalysis step, and then, subjected to scaling and color conversion in animage processing (preprocessing) step. Then, print image data isgenerated in a rendering step.

The generated print image data is compressed in a datacompression/depression step (image processor 5), and thereafter, storedin the memory 7. The compressed print image data stored in the memory 7is read, and thereafter, decompressed in the data compression/depressionstep (image processor 5). The compressed print image data is subjectedto tone and half-tone corrections in an image processing(post-processing) step (image processor 5), and then, supplied to aprint engine (printout unit 10). The print engine (printout unit 10)prints the supplied print image data on paper to generate a printedmatter.

In the foregoing printing operation process, there is the case whereapplication and printer driver do not generate suitable PDL. For thisreason, an error sheet is printed or illegal character occurs althoughit is a rare case.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a printout example when normal print isexpected.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a printout example when an error occurs. Thiserror occurs resulting from the following cases. One is the case wherebug exists in PDL data generated by application or printer driver; forthis reason, the PDL is described in error. Another is the case whereintermediate data created temporarily in the memory is complicated; forthis reason, the storage capacity is short of.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a printout example when illegal characteroccurs. According to the illegal character, if no font designated fromthe application exists in the printer 20, characters are printed usinganother font, and the printer operates as if a normal print is made.However, kanji portion is converted into alphanumeric characters, andthe print position is shifted.

According to the present invention, the procedures given below aretaken. Specifically, the processing content of the printer 20 isautomatically changed based on the kind of errors detected in the printlanguage analysis step of the RIP 8 to prevent wasteful print. Moreover,error information is given to user so that user selects a necessary pageof a print job, which is not printed, and prints it. By doing so, user'savailability is improved.

The print language analysis step of the RIP 8 has an error detectionfunction.

The RIP detects an error, and thereafter, the program execution unit 1determines the kind of the error to automatically change the processingcontent of a print job.

FIG. 6 shows an error recovery content management table. In the table,an error is previously classified, and recovery contents with respect tothe error are defined. The table is prepared in the memory 7. Accordingto the table, recovery method ID is classified into four, that is, “0”,“1”, “2” and “3”.

FIG. 7 shows an error recovery method setting table. The table is alsoprepared in the memory 7. For example, if the kind of error is a syntaxerror, the recovery method ID “2” is selected to execute the recoverycontent of the recovery method ID “2” the error recovery contentmanagement table shown in FIG. 6. Specifically, if the error is “syntaxerror”, a print job is automatically changed to execute the followingcontrol. That is, printing is immediately stopped to prevent paper frombeing wastefully spent, and to give the error information to user. Then,the print job is held as electronic data, and user selects pages as theneed arises.

Moreover, if the error is “font error (two-byte character)” and “systemerror”, the same control as above is executed according to the errorrecovery method setting table shown in FIG. 7. If the error is “fonterror (one-byte character)”, the font used in place of the one-bytecharacter is alphanumeric character; therefore, printing is not stopped.However, if several paper printing is set, the control is cancelled, andthereafter, only one page is printed, and the job setting is changed.

FIG. 8 shows a screen displayed on the display unit 9 displaying thestatus when a print job is changed.

FIG. 9 shows a screen displayed on the display unit 9 displaying thehistory when a print job is changed.

FIG. 10 shows a select screen displayed on the display unit 9 whenreprint is made.

The automatically changed print job is managed in its history so thatuser readily grasps the change content, and reprint is possible as theneed arises.

The printing operation of the printer having the foregoing configurationwill be explained below with reference to each flowchart shown in FIG.11 to FIG. 19.

Printing (preprocessing) will be explained below with reference to theflowchart of FIG. 11.

The program execution unit 1 of the printer 20 checks whether or not aPDL file supplied from the PC 30 exists in a spooler (ST 1). If the PDLfile exists in the spooler, the program execution unit 1 startsprinting.

The program execution unit 1 opens the PDL file (ST 2), and then, readsPDL data (ST 3).

The RIP 8 makes print language analysis of the read data (ST 6), and ifan error is detected therein, error recovery is carried out (ST 7).

If there is no error, the RIP 8 carries out image processing(preprocessing) (ST 8) and rendering (ST 9).

The image processor 5 compresses print data (ST10).

The program execution unit 1 stores compressed data in the memory 7 (ST11). If an instruction to stop raster image processing (RIP) from errorrecovery is given, the program execution unit 1 stops the raster imageprocessing (RIP) (ST 12). If the instruction is not given, the programexecution unit 1 repeats the raster image processing (RIP) until the PDLfile ends (ST 3 to ST 12).

The error recovery will be explained below with reference to theflowchart of FIG. 12.

When detecting an error in the print language analysis (ST 7), theprogram execution unit 1 determines a kind of error and an errorrecovery method referring to the following two tables, which are storedin the memory 7 (ST 21, ST 22). One is an error recovery contentmanagement table, and another is an error recovery method setting table.

The program execution unit 1 determines the following processingsaccording to the content of the determined error recovery method, andthen, executes necessary processing. The foregoing processings are asfollows:

Stop of print job (ST 23, ST 24);

Stop of print on paper (ST 25, ST 26);

Stop of RIP (ST 27, ST 28); and

Change of job parameter to specify the number of print paper andfinishing (ST 29, ST 30).

Thereafter, the program execution unit 1 gives error information to theuser via the information unit 3 (ST 31), and then, records an errorrecovery history in a log(memory 7) (ST 32).

Printing (post-processing) will be explained below with reference toeach flowchart of FIG. 13 to FIG. 15.

If there exists compressed data of a print image saved in the memory byprinting (preprocessing) (ST 41), the program execution unit 1 sets jobparameter (ST 42).

The program execution unit 1 reads compressed data of designated pages(ST 43), and decompresses it via the image processor 5 to obtain theinitial print image while to making image processing (post-processing)(ST 44, ST 45).

If print onto paper is made (ST 46), the program execution unit 1supplies print image data to the printout unit (print engine) 10 (ST47).

If print onto several papers is made (ST 49), processing is divided intogroup processing (ST 61, 62, 63) and sort processing (ST 71, 72, 73,74). Then, each processing branches to print the number of necessarypapers. According to the group processing, the same pages arecollectively printed according to setup. According to the sortprocessing, the number of necessary papers is printed at a unit using arange from the beginning to the end as one set.

In this case, if an error occurs in the printing (preprocessing), thefollowing processings are executed as the need arises. The processingsare stop of print job (ST 48), print onto paper (ST 46) and cancel(delete) of print image data (ST 50, 51).

Finally, the error recovery procedure will be explained below withreference to each flowchart of FIG. 16 to FIG. 19.

If an error occurs in the printing (preprocessing), print job isprocessed based on the content defined in the foregoing error recoverycontent management table and error recovery method setting table.

In this case, since print image data is already saved, user confirmsthis to reprint the saved print image data if he has necessary pages.Moreover, user periodically checks a screen to delete error recoveryhistory and print image data having an expired retention period usingthe timer 6.

In this case, if the screen is a print status screen (ST 81), theprogram execution unit 1 searches an error recovery history log from thememory 7 (ST 91). Then, the program execution unit 1 counts the numberof errors, which is registered as an error recovery and has no errorrecovery made by user (ST 92). Thereafter, the program execution unit 1sets the number of remaining error recovery (ST 93). The programexecution unit 1 updates the display of the print status screen on thedisplay unit 9 (ST 94).

If the screen is a print status screen (ST 82), the program executionunit 1 reads the error recovery history log from the memory 7 (ST 101).Then, when the user presses a scroll button of an error history list (ST102), the program execution unit 1 scrolls the error recovery history(ST 103). The program execution unit 1 sets non-processing errorrecovery on the history list (ST 104), and then, updates the displayscreen of the display unit 9 (ST 105).

If a “select” button is pressed (ST 106), the program execution unit 1inverts a check state of a check box (ST 107). For example, if the checkstate is a selected state, the unit 1 changes it to a non-select state;on the other hand, if the check state is a non-select state, the unit 1changes it to a selected state

If a “reprint setting” button is pressed (ST 108), the program executionunit 1 changes the display screen of the display unit 9 into a printimage select screen. When a scroll button of an image select list ispressed (ST 111), the program execution unit 1 scrolls the image selectlist (ST 112). Then, the program execution unit 1 creates thumbnailimages from saved compressed print image data (ST 113), and then,updates the display unit of the print image select screen (ST 114).

When an image is pressed (ST 115), the program execution unit 1 invertsa select state of the pressed image (ST 116). When a “zoom” button ispressed, the program execution unit 1 makes a zoom display in thedisplay unit 9 (ST 118). In the display, a popup window is displayed toconfirm the zoomed image.

When a “return” button is pressed (ST 119), the program execution unit 1stores the selected image information in the memory 7 (ST 120), andthen, displays a print error history screen on the display unit 9 (ST121).

When a “reprint execution” button is pressed on the print error historyscreen (ST 109), the program execution unit 1 executes reprint using theselected print image (ST 110).

According to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible toprevent wasteful print output when errors such as PDL syntax error,illegal character and a shortage of system resource occur. By doing so,cost and wastes are reduced, and correctly output data only is selectedand printed; therefore, user's availability is improved.

Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to thoseskilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects isnot limited to the specific details and representative embodiments shownand described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be madewithout departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventiveconcept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

1. A printer comprising; an input unit configured to input data forprinting; an analysis unit configured to analyze the data input by theinput unit; a print engine configured to execute printing for the dataanalyzed by the analysis unit; and a controller configured to determinea kind of an error upon detection of the error by the analysis unit,select one of a plurality of recovery methods held in a table memory forthe kind of the error, and control the print engine to recover a contentaccording to the selected recovery method.
 2. The printer according toclaim 1, wherein the analysis unit is a raster image processor (RIP)which processes the input data to generate print image data forprinting.
 3. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the controllerstops the printing and saves the content as electronic data if theprinting has been started and the kind of the error is one of a syntaxerror, an illegal character of two-byte, and a system error, and savesthe content as the electronic data if the printing has not been startedand the kind of the error is one of the syntax error, the illegalcharacter of two-byte, and the system error.
 4. The printer according toclaim 3, wherein the controller continues several-paper print and afinishing function, notifies a user of an error content, and displaysand records the error content as a history.
 5. The printer according toclaim 1, wherein the kind of an error is selected from at least two of asyntax error, illegal character of one-byte, illegal character oftwo-byte, system error and other error.
 6. The printer according toclaim 1, wherein the controller displays information about the contentrecovered to cope with the kind of the error.
 7. The printer accordingto claim 1, wherein the table memory includes an error recovery contentmanagement table that classifies the error into different kinds, and anerror recovery method setting table that defines recovery methods forthe kinds of the error.
 8. A printing method for a printer comprising aninput unit configured to input data for printing, an analysis unitconfigured to analyze the data input by the input unit, and a printengine configured to execute printing for the data analyzed by theanalysis unit, the method comprising: determining a kind of error upondetection of the error by the analysis unit; selecting one of aplurality of recovery methods held in a table memory for the kind of theerror; and controlling the print engine to recover a content accordingto the selected recovery method.
 9. The printing method according toclaim 8, wherein the analysis unit is a raster image processor (RIP)which processes the input data to generate print image data forprinting.
 10. The printing method according to claim 8, wherein the kindof an error is selected from at least two of a syntax error, illegalcharacter of one-byte, illegal character of tow-byte, system error andother error.
 11. The printing method according to claim 8, whereininformation about the content recovered to cope with the kind of theerror is displayed.
 12. The printing method according to claim 8,wherein the table memory includes an error recovery content managementtable that classifies the error into different kinds, and an errorrecovery method setting table that defines recovery methods for thekinds.
 13. The printing method according to claim 8, wherein thecontrolling includes stopping the printing and saving the content aselectronic data if the printing has been started and the kind of theerror is one of a syntax error, an illegal character of two-byte, and asystem error, and saving the content as the electronic data if theprinting has not been started and the kind of the error is one of thesyntax error, the illegal character of two-byte, and the system error.14. The printing method according to claim 13, wherein the controllingfurther includes continuing several-paper print and a finishingfunction, notifying a user of an error content, and displaying andrecording the error content as a history.
 15. The printing methodaccording to claim 8, wherein the controlling includes continuing theprinting if the printing has been started and the kind of the error isan illegal character of one-byte, and saving the content as electronicdata if the printing has not been started and the kind of the error isan illegal character of one-byte.
 16. The printing method according toclaim 15, wherein the controlling includes continuing several-paperprint and a finishing function, and notifying a user of an errorcontent, and displaying and recording the error content as a history.